This the first post on Dawn Blitz; I’ll do a second at the conclusion of the exercises, or if something really interesting comes up. – KM I made a conscious decision to not attend Dawn Blitz 2013. I’ve covered a U.S. – Japanese exercise at Camp Pendleton before, and I had been frustrated by the...

I recently finished listening to T.X. Hammes on the Midrats podcast for the second time. If you don’t listen to Midrats you should, particularly when they address Asia/Pacific. I think Sal gets Asia wrong at times, but he and Eagle1 ask good questions. They have good guests, and they let their guests talk (sometimes on and on...

To be sure, the article itself is solid and talks to all the right people, including Professor Richard Samuels and Associate Professor Michishita Narushige who are both outstanding scholars of Japan’s security strategy. Ultimately, despite appearances below, the article doesn’t bother me all that much. But it provides a good opportunity to reflect on a few...

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has a new report out on the so-called American pivot to the Pacific, and aligning U.S. forces to support the pivot. It’s an interesting read, and spells out several strategic options for U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), including options that increase or decrease air, land, and sea power. (PDF here.)...

Deployment of the DH-10 land attack cruise missile (LACM), similar in design to the American BGM-109 Tomahawk and Russian KH-55, on Chinese warships could bring new meaning to gunboat diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific.

ChinaSMACK has a post up on Chinese netizens’ reaction to a Japanese magazine article. The article in question included an artist’s impression of the ATD-X/Shinshin/F-3 fighter downing a Chinese J-20 fighter. Netizen reactions ranged from nationalistic to bemused. Of more interest however is the article the image was taken from, which depicts an indigenous...

Japan will once again send ships and personnel to an annual U.S. – led humanitarian and civic action program. Japan will send the landing ship, tank JS Oosumi, two Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) and twenty medical personnel to Pacific Partnership 2012. The Japanese medical personnel will serve on the mission command ship, the hospital...

As the US turns to Asia, Jeffrey W. Hornung of CSIS presses on the need to fix the realignment plan and push ahead in the context of US strategy:

A resolution [to the Futenma realignment problem] is required because as the United States pivots to the Asia-Pacific region, it is imperative to know what the U.S. force posture is going to look like and how Japan fits in this strategy, and then work to implement it. Excess focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. Marine presence in Okinawa diverts attention away from the sizable role to be played by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force at Yokosuka and Kadena in the event of a regional contingency. The region is rapidly changing, and the quicker the problems of realignment are settled, the quicker the United States and Japan can adapt to meet those changes.

Air Sea Battle is taking center stage in the emerging American Pacific regional military strategy. Now that the concept has acquired new-found fame, it has also similarly acquired enemies. Marine Corps War College Professor James Lacey is the latest to attack AirSea Battle as a operational concept elevated to strategy. Bryan McGrath of Information Dissemination...